Marijuana Blog

When authorities discovered a lab full of marijuana plants in a bomb shelter beneath an all girls Orthodox Jewish school south of Tel Aviv, they proposed that outsiders must be responsible – because Haredim girls would never smoke pot, right?

A queer smell arose from the bomb shelter of the Kiryat Gat school for Haredi girls located about 35 miles south of Tel Aviv, The Jerusalem Post reports.

One teacher followed her nose, so to speak, and stumbled upon a professional growing lab in a bomb shelter below the school, which was complete with all the special lamps and irrigation technology required to grow twelve marijuana plants in a dark, enclosed space.

But here’s where it gets funny. Perhaps to divert negativity away from the Orthodox community, law enforcement officials were quick to say they will explore the possibility that a stranger to the school had coveted the space for their illegal drug operation.

In fact, they are going to launch a full-scale undercover operation to root out the bad guy (girl?) with an attitude reminiscent of that recently directed towards 269life vegan activists who protested the meat industry with decapitated animal heads scattered in visible public places in Tel Aviv and surrounding neighborhoods.

Most rabbis consider all kinds of smoking to be a form of self-endangerment, so – given marijuana’s mild mind altering qualities caused by the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – it’s probably safe to say that finding a pot growing lab at an Orthodox school is pretty darn scandalous.

However, and this is the case with so much in Israel, the country has a split personality when it comes to marijuana.

There is a big vote this Tuesday in Los Angeles, California that will largely determine the future for medical marijuana dispensaries in the area. Below is a message that I received from my friends in Los Angeles:

On May 21 join Angelenos for Safe Access - a coalition of business, collectives, doctors and patients – in voting Yes on F and No on D.

Proposition D is a fraud that doesn’t work. Proposition D doesn’t protect minors, patients or the public. Ordinance F is the solution to create sustainable and healthy rules that would – regulate medical cannabis collectives in Los Angeles.

Ordinance F Saves Jobs: Proposition D wants to decrease the number of dispensaries, which would result in job loss. The estimated 750,000 legitimate medical marijuana patients in Los Angeles would be forced to crowd into less than 135 dispensaries. Only Ordinance F aims to maintain enough dispensaries so sick patients have easy access to their medicine and 70,000 jobs aren’t lost.

Ordinance F Requires Mandatory Backgrounds Checks On All Dispensary Employees: In the process of legalizing medical marijuana, Ordinance F wants to ensure that dispensaries are operated by law-abiding citizens, and not associated with any criminal activity. By assuring the community that dispensaries are being operated and inhabited by people who have no criminal record in the past 10 years we can eradicate criminals owning and operating dispensaries.

SCOTCH PLAINS — Two-year-old Vivian Wilson sleeps with a heart and oxygen monitor attached to her toe. When she wakes up, the toddler must wear an eye patch and be kept from direct sunlight. An overnight bag, oxygen tanks and other medical equipment are stacked behind the sofa.

Vivian is diagnosed with a rare and severe form of epilepsy known as Dravet syndrome.

These are a few of the ways her parents relentlessly manage everything that comes into contact with their youngest daughter, who suffered her first seizure when she was 2 months old.

None of it is enough. Medications help, as does a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet — every meal weighed to a 10th of a gram. But only so much.

Vivian’s parents, Brian and Meghan Wilson, enrolled her in New Jersey’s medicinal marijuana program in desperation, hoping that a strain of pot that has stopped most seizures in a small but growing number of children in Colorado and California could help her.